Advice needed

[pbsweetheart]

I am currently working on getting a SH tank started and have been reading and going to my LFS which the lady has been helping me, but am not sure how much a chiller is really needed. I live in south Texas so we will have a/c running in the hot summer but I am afraid the temp in the house and tank is going to fluctuate a lot with out a chiller.

I have a biocube 14 (yes I know it is small, somehow the LFS lady convinced me that a pair of kuda would be okay in it, and now I know I probably shouldn't have listened to her so I am trying to convince my hubby to let me get the 29g biocube. But I figure if I have cold water, good food, and good water they should be okay.

Any advice on if or if not a chiller is really needed.

 

[mtc1966]

definitely bad advice imo . I would get the 29g tank first before thinking chiller. but you may want to reconsider the all in one tank all together as they will run hotter with the closed tops.

 

[rayjay]

It is almost a certainty that you will loose the kuda's or any other seahorses you put in there. Your "lady" LFS knows nothing about the needs of seahorses but that is the norm in an LFS as very few have a reasonable amount of seahorse knowledge.
Recommended temperatures are 68° to 74° due to captive bacteria presence in the tank due to feeding habits of seahorses.
Check out post 5 of This Thread for temperature reasoning.

 

[pbsweetheart]

It is almost a certainty that you will loose the kuda's or any other seahorses you put in there. Your "lady" LFS knows nothing about the needs of seahorses but that is the norm in an LFS as very few have a reasonable amount of seahorse knowledge.
Recommended temperatures are 68° to 74° due to captive bacteria presence in the tank due to feeding habits of seahorses.
Check out post 5 of This Thread for temperature reasoning.

Would dwarf SH be better to put in the 14 g then with a chiller?

I realize now, and am seriously thinking about going up there telling her that she doesn't know what she is doing and that I would like a refund.

 

[rayjay]

Well I don't know what happened to your last post, but from the e-mail I received about it I can still reply.
The tank is too large for dwarf seahorses, first because they are soooo small, you would loose them. (hard to see)
The major reason though is because dwarfs usually don't hunt down their food like their larger cousins do, so you need a heavy density of the enriched bbs so they can snick enough as they pass by close enough to where they are hitching.
A normal dwarf tank in the 5g range takes a lot of enriched bbs to feed, but in your tank, it would take an inordinate amount for them to get enough to feed on.
You can't just leave the uneaten ones in there either, as they loose their enrichment quite fast so you have to remove the uneaten ones to replace them with new enriched bbs.
If you go to the LFS, show them this Care Guide which will show that kuda need a minimum 29g tank for a pair, but only 15g extra volume for each additional pair.